Prostate cancer is one of the most common neoplastic diseases in men, and is among the types of tumors which are fatal in most male cancer patients. Timely identification of prostate tumors with determination of whether the tumor is malignant or benign is of decisive importance. Various techniques for this purpose are known. Suspected diagnoses can be established by palpation in digital rectal examination. For quantitative analysis, ultrasound examination, magnetic resonance tomography, or positron emission tomography (PET) can be used. Moreover, biomarkers such as prostate biomarkers can support the identification and differentiation of malignant prostate tumors and benign prostate tumors. Some of these biomarkers can be detected, for example, in the blood, urine, or ejaculate. In analysis of a biopsy tissue sample, a determination of whether prostate cancer is present is made based on said tissue sample. The identification of prostate tumors, and the determination of whether an aggressive tumor or non-aggressive tumor is present, is of particular importance in deciding whether further observation (so-called “active surveillance”) is indicated or whether treatments such as prostatectomy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, or chemotherapy must be carried out.
However, the efficient and objective analysis of samples, for example blood, urine, ejaculate, biopsy specimens, or tissue sections, remains a challenge. Many of the conventional approaches for analysis of these samples are time-consuming, expensive, and often insufficiently objective.
In particular, in analysis of biopsy specimens, a frequent problem is that the specimens, particularly in the case of small prostate tumors, may contain only tissue located far from the prostate tumor. In such cases, conventional analysis methods often do not provide sufficiently reliable findings to establish where an aggressive or non-aggressive prostate tumor is present.